Monday, September 8, 2014

Intruders, Season 1, Episode 3: Time Has Come Today

Tim the replacement
conspiracy theoriest is still on the radio (and can he get new material? Armstrong’s
family was killed and so was Oz – you need a bit more than murders for a
conspiracy) being listened to by creepy Madison (or Marcus) and the woman she
paid to drive her to Seattle (she looks very disturbed and, frankly, should be
wearing a red shirt), Karen. She’s starting to have doubts over the whole
driving off with a 10 year old girl thing while Madison continues to be the
creepiest kiddy ever with extra knowledge of classical music which she also
makes creepy by throwing in some child murders that she remembered way before
she was born- because she’s Madison and everything she does is creepy.

To Jack who is drinking while driving and playing with
his phone as well. Naughty policeman. He’s having lots of sad memories of his
wife Annie and how she became all creepy and odd before her disappearance.

On the same stretch of road, Richard Shepherd (the ominous one) is having his
own angsty memories of being sent to kill Marcus – who says (for more
crypticness) “Granfield convinced the 9 to finally kill me off.” We have added
references to knowing people for thousands of years. Marcus has another plan – pay Richard a load of money to
pretend he’s dead and when he finally does die, Richard will “Shepherd him off
the books” (I’m calling him Richard from now on since Shepherd seems to be a
job description as much as a name) which seems to be how these people come back
from the dead. When he comes back he will then kill off the 9 since they won’t
be expecting him. He also gives Richard the cracker/wafer which he gave to
Madison in an earlier episode.

He does accept the deal so we’re back to the present with
Richard looking kind of troubled.

Jack returns home and returns his neighbour’s car – and she
briefly pulls a gun on him because Madison isn’t the only one who can pull out
the creepy.

Amy is waiting for him… yes that phone call last week was
genuine. Rather than talk about her random disappearance she’s concerned about
the bruises on him – and him still drinking (the impression being that Jack
used to have a problem). She does have a fairly good idea for why she didn’t
call him to say she’d lost her phone (she couldn’t remember his mobile number. Landlines
apparently don’t exist). She actually has a really good explanation for
everything (she was interviewing with a rival firm and didn’t want her boss to
know about it) and is actually pretty angry about him not remembering them
discussing it (him being so self-absorbed with his book). She also pours away
the bottle of booze she finds.

They reconcile and it doesn’t cover everything but Amy
tells Jack that she will never leave him – because he’s her Shepherd. She then turns
into the cryptic about how he couldn’t understand – before running out and
playing jazz, music she’s supposed to hate.

He goes to her to find her on the phone with someone. She
tries to get him to back off but he keeps pressing, she’s supposed to have quit
smoking and now she’s lighting up again and who is she calling in the middle of
the night. She has another plausible explanation and asks for her phone – which
he gives her, but not before cloning it. Yeah, this level of suspicion is not
the recipe for a happy marriage. On that note, Jack makes a plea for them to
return to how they were – and she says they have to split up.

Jack does not take this back and pushes her into a chair, storming off; rather
worryingly Amy says “I didn’t want to bring out this Jack” and becomes
extremely apologetic and worried in the face of his rage. She accepts total
blame and adds “I need to become who I’m meant to be.”

Jack punches a window and probably breaks his hand. There’s lots of crying and
Amy telling him she isn’t leaving him, she loves him – she’s leaving herself.
It’s kind of like breaking up with someone who has spent the last 10 years
reading New Age Self Help books. Jack seems to get over his anger due to sheer
confusion.

Jack decides to get drunk in the rain and, with some reminiscences, Amy spills
the truth: they die and they come back. Jack, of course, doesn’t understand and
thinks that some hippy has taken over his wife because it’s so grossly out of
character. He talks about how she saved his life and begs her to stay so he can
save her. They kiss, they begin to have sex – and Amy’s pupils expand (a
possession marker it seems).

They meet up and Gary shows pictures of Amy with a man
(her boss?) when she said she was home. He also has evidence that she’s part of
a group that killed Bill Anderson’s family (we keep going back to this
mysterious Bill Anderson).

Back to Madison and her unwilling driver, Karen. When
Madison falls asleep, the Karen picks up the black card with the 9 on it – and a
telephone number on the back. She pulls into a rest stop and while Madison is
asleep calls the number getting Richard Shepherd. She can only get a garbled
message through to Richard though before Madison arrives and has a full on
tantrum, smashing the phone.

After the call ends Marcus/Madison realises she’s gone a
little too far in her child role and apologises to Karen – tearfully claiming
the man she was calling was her “uncle Marcus” who “touched her.” When she
learns Karen told Richard where she is, she plans to leave – a suddenly
horrified and guilty Karen offers to take her the rest of the way to Seattle,
now definitely under Madison’s influence. But first they need to use the
washroom

There’s banging and screaming – and it’s not Madison screaming.

Richard arrives at the rest stop with his gun – to find a
whole lot of blood and Karen’s body.

It occurs to me, if these people have been resurrecting
for literally thousands of years you’d think they’d be better at covering it
up. I mean, Amy drops into Russian, doesn’t realise what habits she should or
shouldn’t have and says things like “I need to become who I’m meant to be.” And
Madison? Yeah, they’re not good at this

I have to say, regardless of who is possessing Amy, I’d
be cheering her on if she decided to leave Jack anyway – he does not look like
the safest of partners. His rage and violence and her fear were disturbing to
watch. I don’t think the show did a great job of showing that as a bad thing
rather than just evidence of his oh-so-tragic pain.

It overshadows the underlying message of the conflict – that Amy has undergone
a fundamental personality shift and how adrift Jack is with an Amy who is so
alien from the one he knew. This would all work more if we’d seen more of their
relationship before – I can kind of see what they’re trying for but I think
they’ve missed it – they’ve missed the deep and terrifying horror of someone
you know so well, of someone you love, of your spouse acting so completely
alien – of them listening to music they loathe, eating food they once hated,
saying things they’d never even consider. I think if they’d conveyed that
better then Jack’s questioning and suspicion and fear would be conveyed better
(though his rage remains unchallenged and problematic).

I am still awed by the quality of Madison’s acting
because that girl is scary. And part of me wants to say “Karen, she’s a child,
you don’t let her speak to you like that!” but then another small part of my
brain says “Oh please, if you were in Karen’s shoes you’d shut up and cringe
too!” because she broke the creepy meter. Still… I am a little dubious of
Madison’s ability not just to intimidate but to dish out that level of
violence.

There have been a fair few deaths on this show in its
short time – what there haven’t been is a fair few POC; and most of the few we
have had are disproportionately among the dead. The random Chinese people last
episode and now Karen – following on from the luckless cabby who was beaten.
They didn’t just die, but they were pretty tangential to the story – Karen and
said cabby in particular were not invested or part of the story in any way –
they were tokens thrown in to die. It makes me worry about Gary – but also
think he may be safe as the single recurring POC.